Precious
by EveLGW
Summary: Grissom takes a walk. (GSR)


Title: Precious  
Author: Eve (little_grey_woman42@yahoo.de)  
Spoilers: none.  
Rating: G  
Disclaimer: not mine.  
Category: GSR, fluff. Pure and simple cotton-candy-fluff. And yes, it's the pink kind of cotton candy, too.  
Summary: Grissom takes a walk.  
  
  
Precious  
by Eve  
  
  
He carried the small weight with uttermost care.  
  
Dawn was already breaking when he slowly made his way through the nearly deserted streets of Las Vegas. While he wasn't able to move his hand from its current position to cast a look at his watch, the rising sun told him that he would arrive just in time.  
  
Measured in pounds his load wasn't very heavy. In fact, he could barely feel the additional weight as he moved cautiously, closely watching his steps.  
  
It was small, so very small and yet so indescribably precious.  
  
On a rational level he knew of course that he was probably being overprotective. But the whole situation was still so new for him, wonderful and at the same time so very frightening that he couldn't help himself.  
  
Just like he sometimes couldn't believe that the last two years had actually happened; that he wasn't caught up in a dream he could wake up from any minute. Couldn't believe that the life he was leading now was real, that it truly belonged to him - like she did.  
  
Yet, as he slightly tightened his hold on her petite frame, careful not to crush her, his senses assured him once again that he wasn't dreaming.  
  
Minuscule movements underneath his jacket.  
  
Small puffs of moist air against the cotton cloth of his shirt.  
  
And if he concentrated and listened closely enough, he would hear from time to time a tiny sigh and the sound of her sucking on her pacifier.  
  
He remembered that at one point of his life, a time which now felt to him like a lifetime ago, he had come to accept that this would never be a part of his life. That he would spend the rest of his life without that special person by his side, that he would remain childless. It wasn't a bad life back then if perhaps sometimes a bit lonely. But he had a job he loved and was content with what he had.  
  
It had been enough for him ... until Sara came back into his life. Without him realising it at first her presence changed him. She made him aware that there were things he had been missing without even knowing it. Things he had never spent as much as a second thought on because he knew what kind of life he was leading, knew that some things just weren't meant to be. Back then he couldn't have imagined his life to be any other way, couldn't have possibly imagined the changes this one phone call from Las Vegas to San Francisco would finally bring about.  
  
And as corny as it might sound it was nevertheless just as true - he wouldn't want to miss the past years he spent with her for the world.  
  
Now he couldn't even imagine a life that didn't have her and their daughter in it.  
  
Carefully readjusting the baby sling underneath his jacket, he observed that his daughter had once again turned her head to the right, that her ear was now resting over the place where his heart was. He wondered if she was perhaps listening to his heartbeat, if it was its steady rhythm that lulled her into sleep so quickly each time he put her into the baby sling, put on his jacket and went outside for a walk. He was trying to keep her warm but not too warm, trying to keep her safe. Of course he knew that Sara and he couldn't possibly protect her from the world that surrounded them, a world of which they, due to their jobs, often saw the worst of. But nobody could prevent them from trying anyway.  
  
And so he tried to keep her close, to shield her from it as much as possible until she was old enough to understand it and protect herself.  
  
He turned left and walked onto the parking lot. As he approached the tall building, his gaze swept over the entrance area and he instantly caught sight of her. And just like so many years before, when he met her for the very first time, his heart abandoned its steady rhythm and skipped a beat.  
  
Sara opened the glass door of the LVPD building and stepped out into the fresh morning air. When she spotted them after a few moments, she smiled brightly at the sight in front of her and quickly made her way across the nearly empty parking lot to meet them halfway.  
  
Pressing his index finger against his lips, Grissom pointed at the top of the baby's head whose curly brown hair was peeking out of the opening of his jacket. She mouthed a silent greeting and hugged him gently, lingering for a couple of seconds before letting him go. He pulled at the zipper of his jacket and Sara bent forward, tenderly kissing the smooth forehead that had now come fully into sight from underneath the protective layer of clothing.  
  
"Hi, sweety," she breathed gently, not wanting to disturb her daughter's sleep.  
  
"She started crying about an hour ago. I guess something must have woken her up. But she fell asleep as soon as we walked out of the door," he softly answered her unspoken question.  
  
"Still works like a charm, doesn't it?" she said just as quietly, looking up from her baby's head into her husband's blue eyes. "You walked all the way down here?" she asked him, realising for the first time that their car was nowhere in sight.  
  
He slightly shrugged his shoulders. "Yes. But I made sure she was warm enough."  
  
"I know you did," she said affectionately, brushing her fingers across his cheek. "But you know we're probably spoiling her rotten, Grissom," Sara added with a smirk.  
  
He sighed dramatically. "Yeah, we probably are." Then he leaned into her as far as the baby sling would allow it and whispered conspirationally into her ear, "But I won't tell her if you don't."  
  
"Deal," she said with twinkling eyes. And then she added, "So, since you drove me to work yesterday evening: How do we get home?"  
  
"Well, we could take a cab -"  
  
" - which would most likely wake her up as soon as the car starts moving -"  
  
He nodded in agreement and continued her sentence without missing a beat, " - or we could simply walk."  
  
Sara looked up to the sky, already bathed in a reddish light, closed her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. Then she looked at him again and said, "A walk would be wonderful. You want me to take her for a while?"  
  
"No, I'm fine." While he knew that by tomorrow morning his back would certainly be killing him, he also suspected that a change of position would only result in waking her up. And besides that he always enjoyed those walks the three of them took together and wasn't quite ready to let go of his daughter yet.  
  
"Okay."  
  
She took his arm, turning around to brush her free hand once again over her daughter's head before carefully zipping the jacket halfway up again. When she looked up and met his gaze, he could only see understanding and love in her brown eyes. He couldn't help himself, leaned over and their lips met in a gentle and loving kiss.  
  
When they finally moved, walking off the parking lot and heading for the still relatively calm streets, their daughter shifted in her sleep. He could feel her tugging at his shirt, bunching up the cloth in her tiny hands, holding on to him. When they had to stop at an intersection, he tilted his head forward and breathed in his daughter's sweet scent as if trying to memorise it. He felt Sara move as she leaned against his frame and then kissed his cheek. Grissom tightened his hold on her arm in response and smiled.  
  
He knew that one day their daughter would be too big for the baby sling, would be to big for him to carry her around. One day she would be able to stand on her own feet. Sometimes he tried to picture their daughter, tried to imagine what she would look like in a couple of years. She had inherited her mother's sparkling brown eyes and he had no doubt that she would grow up to be a beautiful and intelligent young woman.  
  
The traffic light in front of them turned green and they resumed their walk home, falling into a pace that left them enough time to simply enjoy the moment.  
  
Grissom was aware that the day would come on which Sara and he would have to let their daughter go, let her find her own way. But no matter how much time might pass by, no matter how grown-up she would be, he knew for sure that just like her mother he would always keep her right where she'd been from the moment he learnt about her existence - close to his heart. 


End file.
